The Israeli air force attacked a Palestinian Hamas rocket crew in Gaza on Friday and Hamas rockets hit an Israeli city, in the 11th day of long-range skirmishes threatening to wreck a five-month-old truce.
Palestinian medical workers said two Hamas fighters were wounded in the air strike, which an Israeli military spokesperson said was ordered in response to a Hamas rocket attack.
Hamas said it fired eight rockets at the city of Sderot. Two hit the town causing damage to buildings, Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said. One Israeli was treated for shrapnel wounds, and a number of people were treated for shock.
”Fortunately there were no casualties but there was a lot of damage,” said Micha Ben Alain, whose kibbutz near Sderot was hit. ”Windows were smashed and doors were torn apart.”
Israel has closed border crossings with Gaza, halting food and fuel supplies to the blockaded enclave between Israel and Egypt on the Mediterranean coast. Hamas Islamists who control the territory do not recognise Israel’s right to exist.
United Nations aid agencies supplying Gaza said they were out of food to distribute to 750 000 Palestinians.
”People are going to start getting hungry,” said UN spokesperson Christopher Gunness.
A senior Israel defence official on Friday said that ”due to the continued rocket fire the crossings are shut today … there is no intent to open then today”.
Bread rationing
The clashes began on November 4. Israeli forces killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid to destroy a secret infiltration tunnel and a strike at militants who had fired mortars.
Israeli troops shot dead four Hamas gunmen in a further incursion on Wednesday, and Hamas responded with more rocket and mortar attacks, ratcheting up tensions in what Hamas spokesperson Ayman Taha called a dangerous escalation.
Short of fuel, Palestinian officials shut down Gaza’s sole power plant on Thursday, causing partial blackouts in Gaza City. European Union-funded fuel generates about a third of the electricity consumed by Gazans. The rest comes from Israel, which was continuing to supply, and Egypt.
On Friday, some Gaza bakeries posted notices limiting the purchase of bread, although no major shortages were reported.
The UN on Thursday said its warehoused food supplies were finished and unless a re-supply convoy of trucks was allowed through, Palestinians relying on food aid would also run out.
Israel had initially said it would allow 30 trucks of food and other humanitarian goods into the enclave, but they were turned back on Thursday. Israeli officials said Palestinian militants planned an attack and called off the convoy.
Hamas Islamists are in conflict with the Palestinian mainstream led by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction. Fatah holds sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and is negotiating with Israel on the terms of a comprehensive peace treaty.
The rift between them widened last year as Hamas seized control of Gaza. Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at establishing unity faltered in Cairo earlier this month. — Reuters